ABOUT THE JOURNALISTS

Armed only with their cameras, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning conflict Journalist Mike Boettcher, and his son, Carlos, provide unprecedented access into the longest war in U.S. history. Mike and Carlos Boettcher are the only reporters devoted to full time coverage of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. They began their embed with U.S. forces in August 2008.

MIKE BOETTCHER

Mike Boettcher was serving as an embedded freelance journalist with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division along with his son Carlos as a part of his “No Ignoring” project, where they are covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and telling the stories of the soldiers fighting in them.

As a veteran network news correspondent, Boettcher has been recognized with some of journalism’s top awards including four national Emmy Awards, a National Headliner Award and a Peabody for his coverage of world events.

Boettcher has witnessed three decades of assignments covering world conflict for NBC News and CNN, and also has been a victim of terrorism himself. He was kidnapped and threatened with execution in El Salvador in 1985, and 20 years later, he survived a suicide bomber attack and a roadside bombing in Baghdad.

Boettcher’s experience covering Iraq dates back to Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when he was embedded with the U.S. Marines. That same year, he won an Emmy for his coverage of the Kurdish refugee crisis in Iraq.

CARLOS BOETTCHER

Born into the conflict of apartheid-era South Africa, and as a first-hand witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Carlos’ life covering the drama of conflict and foreign news has seemed like an inevitability from the start.

After moving to the suburbs of Chicago as a boy, Carlos maintained his interest in the far and exotic, reading and watching anything he could to learn more. With this focus, he found himself a student at The George Washington University, majoring in International Affairs.

Looking to do more, Carlos joined his father in Baghdad to cover the war before turning his sights eastward to Afghanistan. The years spent reporting with Mike Boettcher brought father and son closer than ever before, and led to both working for ABC News where their coverage was recognized in the form of two Emmys, including the award for Best News Story. Carlos now covers foreign and domestic news as a producer for ABC News, and he currently lives in Brooklyn.